Who would’ve thought we’d be one point off the top at the beginning of March?
All those calling for us to be careful what we wish for must be a bit embarrassed right now, and long may that continue.
Our win over Spurs on Wednesday night has to be up there as our best of the season. We’re now just a Premier League win over Man United away from registering a victory against ALL of the Premier League’s so-called top six. In the process, we’ve gone a long way towards becoming a top six force ourselves.
The quality is there, the management and coaching staff are there, the players are there, the chairmen are in place, it’s just whether we can continue this in to next season which is the big question.
But this weekend we face our bogey team. We never have much luck against Everton, particularly at Goodison Park where we haven’t won since December 2005.
However, if there was ever a time we were able to go there and come away with all three points, it’s now.
Everton haven’t been great at home all season, while we’ve generally been absolutely superb both home and away. It hasn’t been a happy stomping ground for us in the Premier League era, but our form suggests we can put that right this weekend – and potentially sneak in to the top four should other results go our way.
The big problem is our injury crisis in defence, with Ginge pulling his hammy against Spurs. But young Reece Oxford is more than capable of stepping in and covering.
Byram is still suspended, but Antonio proved on Wednesday that he can perform brilliantly as a wingback/right-back, so not big issue there either.
Here’s how we think Big Slav might line the lads up on Saturday afternoon…